Fortifying Your Home

[gunsisgood]

.A hidden method of egress and escape should be a priority. A position somewhere outside of the home to put rifle fire on those breaking into the home. If even just for revenge as you leave for safety.JMHO

Very important and often overlooked.

 

[IndyDave1776]

just for fun...

Oh well. It was funny but the image won't post. Too bad you can only edit posts, not delete them.

 

[BravoMike]

Love the idea of the 3M security film. I looked around online an can only find one store in the Indy area that offers this and they are installers as well. I also couldn't find it to buy online either, looks like I have to go to a distributer. Anyone able to find this stuff elsewhere? How hard and time consuming is it for DIY?

 

[melensdad]

Love the idea of the 3M security film. I looked around online an can only find one store in the Indy area that offers this and they are installers as well. I also couldn't find it to buy online either, looks like I have to go to a distributer. Anyone able to find this stuff elsewhere? How hard and time consuming is it for DIY?

3M Film must be installed by an authorized supplier to have a warranty, etc. I could not find anyplace to buy it from. My installers did give me some extra, at no cost, so I could install it on a couple workshop windows

 

[Dorky_D]

Love the idea of the 3M security film. I looked around online an can only find one store in the Indy area that offers this and they are installers as well. I also couldn't find it to buy online either, looks like I have to go to a distributer. Anyone able to find this stuff elsewhere? How hard and time consuming is it for DIY?

Who is the Indy installer?

 

[BravoMike]

Who is the Indy installer?

3M

Enter your zip code and it will show dealers for your area.

As for the Indy area dealers, there where actually two, but only one website worked.

 

[mydoghasfleas]

I like this idea, cause my house has 8 FRENCH DOORS, you can see outside from almost any room in the house, need to protect from someone kicking my french doors down

What makes you think they will surrender so easily to an invader?!

 

[Dorky_D]

What makes you think they will surrender so easily to an invader?!

OK, it took me a minute...

 

[Lex Concord]

I got some and turned into a great dad the day that I got em for getting the kids a sand box... Lol the wife never even knew. also had to get some extra bags of sand in case of cats.....

That was the one thought I had...I'll have to build the next one a bit deeper

 

[Lex Concord]

3M Film must be installed by an authorized supplier to have a warranty, etc. I could not find anyplace to buy it from. My installers did give me some extra, at no cost, so I could install it on a couple workshop windows

You can find some brands of it on Amazon...

[ame="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/175-9402675-6861124?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=3M+security+film"]Amazon.com: 3M security film[/ame]

 

[melensdad]

You can find some brands of it on Amazon...

Amazon.com: 3M security film

You link didn't work, but I did a search on Amazon and found some stuff that might work. Its sold by thickness (4mil, 8mil, 12mil) and that sounds dubious to me. Its not the thickness of the film that makes it work, its the tear resistance that makes it effective. The 3M film is among the thinnest sold, and its among the most optically transparent.

I've used other brands. For my home I'll stick with 3M. Might use some knock off brand out at the garage where actually seeing out the window is not as important and 'fogging' or 'yellowing' over time would not be an issue.

 

[potbelly]

Question fortify or secure, when SHTF? Near term you might survive. But long term when gangs start to form, what then? How do you hold off a posse of determined thugs that want your stuff?

 

[melensdad]

Question fortify or secure, when SHTF? Near term you might survive. But long term when gangs start to form, what then? How do you hold off a posse of determined thugs that want your stuff?

When in the history of earth has this ever occurred?

I believe its logical to say that the whole of Europe was under a SHTF scenario during World War II, it would also be logica to suggest that Kuwait was under SHTF, Iraq was, and perhaps still is, under SHTF, and Argentena was under SHTF when it collapsed. There are many other examples, even if you include the stock market collapse and great depression here in the USA. Bosnia was clearly under SHTF.

Your scenario probably is semi-similar to Darfur, but even that has a modicum of government control and police authority.

So again, please define a situation where your version of SHTF would exist because as we look at history of a modern earth society it does not seem likely that it has happened and also probably fairly unlikely that it will happen. More likely SHTF will be a monetary collapse (see Argentina's history) or a military invasion (although that is highly unlikely to occur in the USA).

 

[CathyInBlue]

.250 Lexan cut to fit, and screwed or bolted over all the glass on the exterior of your home.

Best I've found is 0.220 inch in 4' x 8' sheets at Home Depot for $420 a pop. You have another, more economical, source for that particular commodity?

Motion activated light can be a game changer as well.

Yes. It can illuminate the intruder so they can more easily see what they are doing and break in quicker. Best to keep motion-activated lights such that they only inhibit the intruder, not assist, or better yet, only use IR motion activated lights for the benefit of the IR cameras.

As for fireproofing, I suggest aerogel-impregnated insulation matting. Aerogel is very lightweight, adding very little weight to insulation, and by itself, almost totally negates any type of energy transfer - thermal or acoustic.

Do you have any earthly idea how much aerogel costs? Coating your house in 1/4" sheets of titanium wouldn't be as costly.

Again, NOTHING is foolproof.

Every time some intrepid inventor creates something more foolproof than the last, the universe goes and creates a bigger fool.

In this day and age, there is absolutely no excuse for installing new video security systems based on analogue video. If it's not Power-Over-Ethernet (PoE) IP digital cameras with a dedicated video logging PC, then you're largely wasting your time and money. I really want to roll my own dome cameras with 0.250 lexan domes 6-8" in diameter with an HD webcam and white light and IR flood lights inside the dome actuated by hobby servo motors for PTZ, and then inside the base will be a Raspberry Pi and PoE power extractor for 5VDC at the unit. I hope to get them down to $150 per before I start ordering parts. This will allow the RasPis to run OpenCV to do scene analysis in parallel with video encoding/compression/streaming. Want to see when the last time that car or bicyclist or pedestrian walked by? Look it up in the database. If it's good enough for Big Brother, it's good enough for me.

For the full-speed large vehicle ramming attack, a properly constructed fence should feature 1/4" wall, 4-6" diameter steel pipes filled with concrete with 2' below ground for every foot above, and under ground encased in concrete as well. If your decor is wrought iron, just paint the bollards black and properly cap them, and they completely disappear as a defensive measure. Or, do as I plan and encase each bollard in a simple layer of brick, filling in between the finished brick and the outside of the above ground bollard with concrete once more. It'll look nice and decorative, but attackers are more apt to think they are just hollow and will topple easily.

A deep cycle battery bank in the basement can run such a video surveillance system and low voltage LED lighting for a good long time before needing a recharge off something other than the grid. For that, a MEP-002A military diesel generator in an acoustic enclosure fabricated to look like a dog house for a small horse named "KILLER", or so it says over the "door", would be all the back up power I'd need.

 

[melensdad]

In this day and age, there is absolutely no excuse for installing new video security systems based on analogue video. If it's not Power-Over-Ethernet (PoE) IP digital cameras ... hope... $150...

I've never seen a true IP digital camera under $1000.

There are a lot of analog cameras that work with IP protocols and have digital CCD capture chips. But those are not true digital cameras they are still analog.

 

[CathyInBlue]

CostCaptain: ProView PoE Internet Camera

Not saying it's the most high quality PoE IP cam, but it'll do until something of higher quality enters your price range. Lots of commercial 720p or even 1080p IP cams are out there for less than $250 or even $150.

And I fail to comprehend your distinction about analogue cameras. Once the circuitry/software has rendered the stimulae tickling its imager into a stream of digital data for ethernet broadcast, what distinction are you saying matters?

 

[melensdad]

CostCaptain: ProView PoE Internet Camera

Not saying it's the most high quality PoE IP cam, but it'll do until something of higher quality enters your price range. Lots of commercial 720p or even 1080p IP cams are out there for less than $250 or even $150.

And I fail to comprehend your distinction about analogue cameras. Once the circuitry/software has rendered the stimulae tickling its imager into a stream of digital data for ethernet broadcast, what distinction are you saying matters?

First off I presumed you were referring to armored commercial weatherproof cameras with the video iq software, etc, not these little consumer things. Those are amazing cameras, can detect people through fog, night, etc.

Many people confuse digital and analog because a camera can be digital but still transmit over wires in analog fashion.

 

[CathyInBlue]

I'm sure a commercial product packing all of the features I mentioned plus customer service hotline and warranty support could demand a grand a pop and get it.

When I talk about a digital camera, I'm talking about one that at the point I access the video feed, to view it or analyze it, it is already in a digital format with no additional work on my part to make it so. The point in the chain where it is rendered from analogue to digital, whether at the imaging chip, a separate conversion chip on board the camera proper, or in a companion subsystem, is really uninteresting to me.

 

[mydoghasfleas]

 

[littletommy]

Best I've found is 0.220 inch in 4' x 8' sheets at Home Depot for $420 a pop. You have another, more economical, source for that particular commodity?

Yes, I get the off fall from stuff we cut at work,usually 28" to 30" wide by 96"......for FREE!